Canadian Junior Football League

The Prairie Football League (PFC), a member of the Canadian Junior Football League (CJFL) has announced that it has received an application to establish a Junior Football team in Lethbridge, Alberta.

The interested party, lead by local football enthusiast Anthony Parker, has inquired to the PFC for permission to pursue this endeavour and launch the expansion process.

While announcing the received proposal, PFC President, Randy O’Shaughnessy said “The PFC has maintained a level of excellence over the past decades and we are happy to discuss this opportunity with Lethbridge. We are keenly focused on evaluating the strength of the proposal including the financial viability of the sponsor group.  There will be challenges to discuss and overcome and there are many details to work out before we would be able to grant a franchise membership to the PFC.  We are excited to explore the feasibility of this proposal and the PFC has agreed in principal to begin the exploration of expansion into Lethbridge.”

Next steps will include developing a strong business plan which will need to address the operations side of the organization including sources and uses of funds, identification of an appropriate venue, formalization of recruitment strategies and long-term player, coach and organizational development plans.

The PFC will also ensure that its expectations from all its member teams for a high degree of social responsibility and community involvement from the players, coaches and organizations can be met through the granting of this franchise membership.

The Lethbridge Organizing Committee (LOC) will work throughout the winter to address these questions as well as many more culminating with a presentation including the Business plan at the PFC’s Annual General Meeting scheduled for March 2021.  At that meeting a vote by the membership will occur which will result in either acceptance, rejection or a request for more information, deferring a decision to a subsequent meeting.

“This is a long, hard process”, O’Shaughnessy said. “We have had more than a few requests over the years but the last one accepted was the Winnipeg Rifles approx. 18 years ago.  We are committed to helping Lethbridge succeed and it was unanimous at our PFC Board meeting that our Board Members, who we believe are among the top businesspeople and football minds from all of our Member cities, will assist in this process as needed.  The PFC franchises are a very close group with the interest of growing this game we love.”